gay marriage

It was a mistake to build an agenda around these issues in the first place. It is utterly idiotic to double down on them as they continue to fail. Someone has to take Republicans’ feet off the pedal of the culture wars before we drive this bus off a cliff.

Congratulations Mayor Parker. I’m sorry it took me and so many other Americans so long to recognize what you and others were experiencing. Best wishes.

The 20th century conflict between liberal democracy and socialism is over. We won. Success means graduating up to better and better problems. Cold War habits will not help us solve 21st century problems. With the exciting global battle over ideology behind us an intense, high-stakes global competition to determine who can most successfully administer a market economy has begun.

The world has changed, mostly for the better. Republicans can claim much credit for that accomplishment. Now we need to greet this changing world with a sense of optimism. We have made the world better in the past. With the courage to re-examine our place in it, we can make it better yet.

Americans don’t like to be told what to do, but they will accept government interference when there is demonstrable evidence of harm. Seat belts and motorcycle helmets drain a lot of the romance from life. We tolerate these constraints on our behavior because they make life better in ways we can prove. You don’t have to hear the audible voice of Jesus Christ Almighty to recognize the value of a seat belt.

Opposition to same-sex marriage never passed that test of demonstrable harm. General discomfort with gay marriage can come from a lot of directions, but the only “danger” in gay marriage is derived from a narrow religious interpretation. The decision whether to extend marriage protection to gay couples was, in some ways, like deciding whether to add a new face to Mount Rushmore. It’s not something to do rashly, but under no conceivable circumstance was it a threat to society.

Social conservatives could learn a lot from public health and safety campaigns of the last generation. With relatively modest legislative support those efforts transformed our culture at its core in a very short time. Instead of leading with prohibition they chipped away at the culture with a steady onslaught of reason, science and careful political pressure. Anti-tobacco activists successfully slashed the incidence of a practice that was not only a cultural icon, but a physical addiction.

This lesson is important because culture issues remain Republicans’ core differentiator. Those issues, when stripped of hysteria and extremism, are perhaps more popular than they have ever been, yet social conservatives are a serious electoral drag. Republicans need to find a strategy that preserves the high ground on culture issues while avoiding authoritarian policies that frighten voters.

As long as this remains a free country (which cannot be taken for granted), the culture warriors of every generation will lose, just as they have for centuries. From the dawn of the Republic, almost decade by decade, we have expanded the scope and meaning of liberty. Each new wave faced a futile line of opponents, struggling to stop others from exercising personal liberties that frightened them, or that threatened their entrenched interests. This week that line of dead-enders stretches out the door of the Chick-fil-A.
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